Stealth

Contrived circumstances and bloodless prose mar Duffy’s uninspired 16th mystery featuring married ex-MI5 agents Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley (after 2011’s Rat Poison). Having assumed a new role helping the Serious Organized Crime Agency, the pair find themselves in Cannes attending an international writers’ festival, both to further author Ingrid’s connections and to gather information on another mystery novelist, Clement Hamlyn, who’s suspected of committing crimes outside his fiction, including rape, assault, and the fatal strangling of an elderly woman. Further investigation suggests Hamlyn and the woman’s neighbor, Hereward Trent, may be linked to a series of unsolved mob killings and to gangster Daniel Coates, with whom Ingrid has a disturbing encounter. Meanwhile, Patrick deals with his lingering guilt over using vigilante tactics in a previous adventure, even as the story line reveals an off-putting lack of concern for its victims. After several violent encounters, the various plot threads are wrapped up in an implausible package. (Feb.)